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Treehouse of Horror: Be Afraid of The Dark
''The Simpsons Movie: In the Game ''is a 2012 American animated comedy horror film based on the animated television series The Simpsons. The film was directed by David Silverman, and stars the regular television cast of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Tress MacNeille, and Pamela Hayden. It features Emma Watson as Princess Winter, she was kidnapped by Mr Powers (Sylvester Stallone) who designed the game and she is trapped in the game. Summary Set in Cumbria, in an old mansion in a largely rural and mountainous region of northern England, the Simpsons discover their charming host Lucille Thorpe (Rhona Mitra) is not who she appears to be. Plot The Simpsons, who are in the UK on a road trip, find themselves lost on a cold and rainy late evening in Cumbria. When Marge asks where the hotel is, Homer takes that moment to reveal, since he couldn't find a hotel in the area, he accepted an offer to stay for a few days at a mansion. They arrive and are visited by the mansion's owner, Lucille Thorpe (Rhona Mitra), who hears about their journey and invites them to stay the night. As Thorpe shows them up to their beds, she shows Bart and Lisa one of the entrances to an extensive set of corridors that were constructed behind and between the framework of the rooms. As Thorpe leaves, she warns them not to go down into the cellar. That night, Lisa wakes to use the toilet. She decides, to prevent anyone from waking up, to use a corridor to go down to the downstairs bathroom. As she goes downstairs, she slips, causing one of her slippers to fall off and land at the entrance of the cellar. As she walks down to pick it up, she hears something bashing against the wall and scraping against the cellar floor. The next morning, Thorpe joins the Simpsons for breakfast, with a haunted expression on her face. Lisa refrains from asking Thorpe about the noise in the cellar. Thorpe suggests a pub in the nearby village that Homer and Marge could go to, offering to look after Bart, Lisa and Maggie whilst they are out. Thorpe tells the Simpsons a story about a half-human half-monkey creature which was found on the moors, 120 years before; the so-called "Man-Monkey". It was brought back to the mansion and kept in a secret room, before it escaped. She, ominously, states that some people say the Man-Monkey still exists. In the middle of the night, Lisa wakes Bart up, telling him about what she heard in the cellar the night before. She convinces him to let her show him, and they use a corridor to sneak down to the cellar. They enter the basement and enter a room with several large sets of chains attached to the wall. Suddenly, they hear a loud roar, causing them to run, terrified, out of the basement and we briefly glimpse a large creature moving in the dark and trying to chase them. They are met by Thorpe, who reacts angrily to their presence and orders they return to bed. Over breakfast, Bart and Lisa discuss what happened the night before and what Thorpe is keeping in the basement. They decide to sneak down again and see what is actually down there. That night, Bart and Lisa successfully evade Thorpe and the household staff and sneak into the basement. They open the room to find a large, hairy, ape-like creature chained to the wall. Suddenly, they hear banging on the door - Thorpe has noticed their absence. Before they leave, Lisa chooses to unlock the creature's chains. Bart and Lisa, running from the creature, are met by Thorpe. Thorpe, angered, pulls out a gun and threatens them with it. They are suddenly interrupted by a roar, before which the creature. Thorpe is beaten to death with the arm from a suit of armour. However, it turns to look at Lisa's shocked face. This pause allows the dying Thorpe to grab a sword from the floor and stabs the creature through the torso. It falls off the staircase and lands on the floor, fatally injuring it. Robert, the caretaker, injured in the creature's escape, reveals all. It turns out the beast was the offspring of a "strange beast" that Thorpe's great-grandfather found in India (which, whilst unnamed, is implied to be a yeti). He kept it chained up in the basement, tortured it to the point where it became vicious and aggressive, and put metal plates and spikes along with a large mask and metal implants in its head to make it look more frightening and keep the "Man Monkey" legend alive. Lisa takes pity on the dying creature and kills the beast with Thorpe's shotgun, in an act of mercy. The next morning, the Simpsons leave, in order to get on with their road trip. They comment on what happened, the story of the Man Monkey and who was the true monster of the affair. Cast *Dan Castellaneta as Homer *Julie Kavner as Marge *Nancy Cartwright as Bart and Additional Voices *Yeardley Smith as Lisa *Rhona Mitra as Lucille Thorpe, the main antagonist of the film. *Peter Capaldi as Robert, the caretaker of the house * Nathan Jackson as * Michael Gilmore as Production Jackson and Gilmore s. They were both ambivalent to making an exact sequel to the previous movie. Jackson came up with an idea for the story, "something that you could not do on the show, which him is the only reason to do a movie." On the same day, Jackson and Gilmore pitched three films that could be put together to form "a feature-length Treehouse of Horror episode". Jackson later went to say he wanted them to be like "an old-style Treehouse of Horror short which, despite being funny, were also very genuinely scary" and that they were hoping to "really be trying to capture, tonally, that feel." They planned to split it into installments, each separated by the genre they represented. The first installment, according to Jackson, would be "the conventional horror movie", the second would be "the monster movie" and the third would be "the science fiction movie". Jackson and Gilmore then began work on the screenplay, in the small bungalow where Groening first pitched The Simpsons in 1987. They spent six months discussing a plot,17 and drew up sketchy ideas. More than 100 ideas were suggested before being scrapped. After six months, Jackson and Gilmore had narrowed it down to three candidates; the family becoming involved in a vampire/werewolf war, a story where the Simpsons hire a creepy new child-minder, or a gothic horror, influenced by classic Hammer Horror films. The producers deemed the third "the best project for us, just the right size". Gilmore called the film a "gothic horror" and "a very set-oriented, classical but at the same time modern take on the horror story", and said that it would allow them to play with the genres' conventions while subverting their rules. Jackson and Gilmore wanted the film to honor the "grand dames" of the haunted house genre, namely Robert Wise's The Haunting and Jack Clayton's The Innocents. They intended to make a horror film in the tradition of the Hammer Horror films they grew up watching. Themes Jackson commented that the film's core theme is "the evil at the heart of humanity. It's the idea that the human welcoming you in is just as scary as the monster that's lurking in the basement". Lucille is a representation of "the hidden evil in all of us. It's the idea that evil is not brought about by monsters, it is, sometimes, all too human". The reason why a previously used character was not used was because "We wanted to convey the lurking stranger archetype. If it was Burns for instance, we'd surmise 'OK, he's up to no good' and be unsurprised when he turns out to be a villain." Jackson also pointed out that all well-loved Simpsons characters were original once. Design For the goblins, Jackson wanted creatures that, when their separate components were considered, seemed outlandish, but, when combined, managed to be genuinely scary. The goblins have disproportionately long arms (taken from siamangs), large eyes (taken from bushbabies) and ears (from fennec foxes), rounded noses (taken from sloths), prehensile tails (taken from spider monkeys) and abnormally long fingers (taken from aye-ayes). Casting Jackson and Gilmore commented that it was obvious that all of the series' regular voice actors: Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, and Harry Shearer, as well as semi-regular performers Tress MacNeille, Pamela Hayden, Maggie Roswell, Russi Taylor, and Karl Wiedergott would have some role in the film. This was the first piece of Simpsons media released after Marcia Wallace's death, and the film is dedicated to her. Jackson described the cast as "minimalist", saying that only the core cast, as well as one or two additional characters, made the environment more claustrophobic and dangerous. "The idea you're trapped in this house with a madwoman is scary." For the new cast members, Rhona Mitra was cast as Lucille Thorpe, the film's antagonist. Jackson picked Mitra because of her "very cultured, seductive and refined voice that can also sound genuinely menacing at the same time". Peter Capaldi was cast as Robert, Thorpe's caretaker, due to his rather "hostile" demeanour, which was perfect for the part. Release On January 30, 2014, it was announced that the film would be released on October 16, 2016.3 Sequels At S89 Expo, Jackson and Gilmore confirmed the possibility of at least two more sequels, each based on a genre of film. Jackson commented they were searching for ideas for the sequel, but they were thinking around the idea of "a alien movie". A working title for the sequel was announced; Treehouse of Horror: Enlightement. Benedict Cumberbatch was later cast as the film's main villain. More information was later announced, with Steve Zahn, Thomas Kretschmann and Ivana Baquero announced to voice as-yet unnamed characters. Quotes Lucille: Would you like to see something interesting? (Lucille presses gently on one of the large paneled walls. It suddenly swings around to reveal a large hidden passageway) Bart: Ha! You have gotta be kidding! Lucille: I had a merry time exploring here when I was a kid. I had it all mapped out by the time I was your age. You're welcome to use them if you want. Lisa: Robert told us everything. Apparently, Sir Thomas Thorpe had brought a strange beast from India, which gave birth. He kept the offspring, chained up in the basement and he tortured it into becoming vicious and aggressive. He covered it in armour to keep it restrained, as well as keep the "Man Monkey" legend alive. Until last night. What killed it? Well, in this case, it was beauty killed the beast.